Thursday, April 20, 2017

In early October (of 2015) Fernando took a trip to Chicago to take his Diagnostic Radiology Certifying Exam. This is a certification test that happens 15 months after finishing Residency (so that he can be "Board Certified" by the American Board of Radiology). The test takes one day (as opposed to his Diagnostic Radiology Core Exam which took two.) and is offered either in Tucson or Chicago.

Fernando always picks Chicago because it gives him an opportunity to spend time in an awesome city and see some friends of his that live there. This time he was able to hang out with a Residency buddy Feraz as well as see his best friend Matt and his family.

Doing some sight seeing after their test!

St. John Cantius Church...
..which Fernando has been wanting to see in person since we watched this awesome documentary from StoryTel Foundation Productions called "Restoring the Sacred."
You can watch it here!
Feraz and Fernando getting authentic Chicago style pizza.

Fernando spent a day and night with the Toups family while he was in Chicago.
Matt and Renee are Elena's Godparents!

After that Fernando made a SURPRISE trip to North Carolina!! Laura and Svet had a party in NC in October for all their friends who weren't going to be able to make it to their wedding in Guatemala in November.
We wanted to make it but figured it wouldn't work out to take all of us (price wise) to NC one month before taking all of us to Guatemala the next month. Then I realized that Fernando's test in Chicago was the Thursday before their NC reception. So we decided to have him fly to NC on Saturday in time for the party instead of flying home. Since we made the decision last minute we made it a surprise for everyone there in NC.
Fernando facetimed me while he was walking in the door and everyone was so surprised and happy to see him! It was so fun to watch everyone's reaction!

Laura and Svet before their party!

Laura with her dad

Sister and brother
The family

Family plus Svet
(minus all 4 of us Boschini girls!)

Their party at the Fearrington Granary
Wish we could have been there!

the menu

The next day Fernando showed his cousins around the Duke gardens after Mass at Duke and before his flight home to us.

We missed him and were so excited to see him when he got home, not just because he came bearing gifts. ;)
(He brought home matching Duke sweatshirts for the girls and me!)

Friday, April 14, 2017

At the end of September/beginning of October my Aunt Sylvia came to visit us from Southern California. She's my dad's only sister and my Godmother. :) We had such a nice time with her here! The girls loved playing with her, hearing her silly stories and coloring with her.

Thankfully she came when Fernando was out of town which was a huge help to me. It's always nice having someone here when Fernando is away.

The girls are so happy in this picture! This was right after getting home from picking up Auntie Sylvia from the airport.

Elena had many great naps with Auntie Sylvia.

Sweet, happy girl

Auntie Sylvia went with us on a trip to Target and of course she treated the girls to pajamas (two pairs each)! The girls were so excited that they had to try them on the minute we got home, even though it was only 4 in the afternoon. And they wore them the rest of the day.

Happy Elena laying on Auntie Sylvia

At Smash Burger after Mass

Lucia and Auntie Sylvia.
I love this picture!

The girls after Mass and lunch... they were excited because we were headed to pick up Papa from the airport after he was out of town for 5 days!

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Our home, although beautiful (and extremely clean--thank you, previous owners!) from the moment we first moved in, had one thing that needed to be taken care of ASAP. And that was the color of the walls!

Egg yolk YELLOW, as we not-so-affectionally referred to it.

Of course in true Rachel fashion, I took FOREVER to actually make a decision and make something happen.

Should we have someone come paint it?

If so who should we hire??

Should we just paint it ourselves?

What color should we use??

Too many questions I didn't have time to think about answers to. When we moved in we had a 3 year old, a 21 month old and a 2.5 week old.... sooo... I didn't exactly prioritize the paint color of our walls. Although to be honest, I should have because it was such an eye sore that it stopped us from actually wanting to have anyone over! We kept saying "once we get rid of this hideous yellow wall color, we'll start to have people over.

And FINALLY in September we made the decision of what company to use and what paint color we wanted! We scheduled them to come as soon as they had an opening, which ended up being in early October.

You'll see by the pictures that I'm not exaggerating the wall color and how bad it was. It's like night and day with the color we chose! It made everything look SO much better!

Well.. see for yourself:

In progress painting!

Already looking so much better!

I'm so happy with the paint color we chose!

This office was a dark green color and it looks SO much better and brighter with the gray we chose.

I had a few videos from this month when Elena started to become super vocal... but I loved this one because it also involves Regina talking to her. I love the beginning where she's rubbing her head and saying "It's okay."